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Day of Anpanman
The Day of Anpanman (also known as the DoA, アンパンマンの日 and Anpanman no Hi) is a special event that occurred on the 19th of May in 2013 and 2014 and was revived on the 20th of November in 2015. During this event, ABS Television affiliates, Nippon TV and NHK World devote the majority of their programming to the Let's Go! Anpanman anime series, and related content. History Kenji Yukimura (founder of Kabushiki Gaisha ABS) first proposed the concept of a day dedicated to the Anpanman series in June 2012. Takashi Yanase (creator of the Anpanman franchise) and Shichirou Minami (founder of Shikoku Television Broadcasting; Takashi Yanase lived within the STB coverage area) then expressed interest for the idea, and then created a poll asking the public for approval. Over 2,000,000 people then showed their interest, and an estimated 1,600,000 Anpanman fans supported the concept. After 5 months of campaigning, Kabushiki Gaisha ABS officially announced in November 2012 that the inaugural Day of Anpanman would take place on the 19th of May 2013, coinciding with the 25th anniversaries of Soreike! Anpanman and Chubu-ABS Television, as well as coinciding with Nippon TV's 60th year of operation. Advertising posters were placed all over ABS Broadcasting Center, and the quarters of other ABS affiliates. The posters had an image of Anpanman (or one of his sidekicks) with the caption "SOREIKE" written across the bottom (as in ''Soreike! Anpanman'') as mocking the Barack Obama "HOPE" campaign. The posters are still being used as advertisements for other Anpanman-themed events on the ABS Television network. In January 2013, it was announced that Day of Anpanman programming would be shown on Nippon TV. The Euro-Japanese pay channel JSTV (operated by NHK Cosmomedia) announced that it would follow suit in February. NHK Cosmomedia Europe announced that Day of Anpanman content would not be shown on JSTV in 2014, and would instead be shown on NHK World TV, a free-to-air satellite service owned by the NHK. Some regularly-scheduled ABS programming is moved to Asahi Kokusai Terebi (which, in regular circumstances, is an international simulcast of TV Asahi) on the day. The practice started in 2014 after viewers complained of mass cancellations of their favorite programs due to the events of the 2013 Day of Anpanman. The 2015 event and all further DoA events were announced as "canceled" after many postponements, accidents and delays, and the main Anpanman series and Let's Go! Anpanman Club! were pulled from ABS schedules along with the DoA's cancellation. Since then, ABS announced that the 2015 DoA would be held (the event itself being reinstated). Stages Preparation phase The "preparation phase" sees ABS affiliates airing their most popular programs 3 days before the DoA. This is done to free up space on their schedule for the DoA. This phase lasts from 5:30 am on the 16th of May to 7:45 am on the 19th of May. On May 18, 2014, the entire ABS network was knocked off the air for over an hour after a transmitter failure during this phase. Opening phase This phase lasts from 7:45 am to 8:02 am on Day. * At 7:45 am, ABS shows its "Special Presentation" ident, and the ABS News team explains the premise of the Day of Anpanman from a temporary studio outside the Yokohama Anpanman Children's Museum and Mall. For the 2013 event, Takashi Yanase was invited into the studio for a short interview (the practice was dropped in 2014, as Yanase died after suffering a cardiac arrest that year). * At 7:50 am, ABS airs a short 2-minute news update from their temporary studio. * At 7:52 am, the team enters the Mall area of the Yokohama Anpanman Museum. Here, they talk to fans of the show (referred to collectively as Anpanfans) before the start of the day. * At 7:57 am, the team returns to their studio. * At 7:59 am, a final countdown to the official starting point of the Day of Anpanman begins. * At 8:00 am, the Day of Anpanman officially starts, the Anpanman characters gather on the central stage, and they dance to one of the show's ending songs. For 2013 and 2014, they danced to San San Taisou, but it was announced that Do-re-mi-fa...Anpanman! would be used as the Day's opening theme in 2015. This never happened to owe to the first event's cancellation, but the theme would be used for the "revived" event in November that year. Programming phase At 8:02 am, Let's Go! Anpanman Club! programming block starts as normal, albeit 17 minutes later than scheduled. From the hours of 9:00am-11:15 am, 11:30am-6:00 pm and 6:20-2:15 am, content aired on ABS stations previously comprised of: * Episodes of Let's Go! Anpanman * Screenings of the Anpanman feature films * Stage shows from the Yokohama Anpanman Children's Museum and Mall * Interviews between Anpanman characters and the ABS News team * The ABS News team's participation in Anpanman-themed activities at the Yokohama Anpanman Museum * Music videos from the Anpanman series, and * 2-minute regional news updates from ABS' local stations (which air once every 5 hours). The ABS N11:15 and ABS N6 news bulletins are the only programs unaffected by the Anpanman lockout, and air as normal within their regular timeslots. As of 2015, 30-minute blocks would be opened for other programs (outside of Anpanman and news), with one block every 3 hours. Ending phase The Day of Anpanman ends at the following times: * 12:10 am for viewers of Kyushu-Ryukyu Broadcasting (signs off) * 1:55 am for viewers of ABS Television Hiroshima (hands over to ABS N24) * 2:15 am for viewers of the following stations: ** The Aso Broadcasting System and ABS Sat.1 (hands over to ABS N24) ** The Sapporo Broadcasting System (hands over to ABS N24) ** The Hyogo Broadcasting System (signs off) ** Tohoku-ABS Broadcasting (signs off) ** Shikoku Television Broadcasting (hands over to ABS N24) ** The Chugoku Television System (hands over to TV Asahi) ** Chubu-ABS Television (signs off) ** Nippon TV (hands over to Nittele News 24) ** BS Nittele (signs off), and ** NHK World (resumes normal operations with NewsLine). Incidents Many incidents have been connected to the DoA: See Day of Anpanman incidents for details. Postponement of the DoA Cancellation The 2015 Day of Anpanman was postponed for 1 week due to a large wave of rebelling ABS staff members attacking the host, and live-action character performers, of the Let's Go! Anpanman Club! when it was on the air. The incident, on the 15th of May, leads to set damage. As the show is (on the day) intended to start the Day of Anpanman after the "Opening Phase", Froebel-Kan, Nippon TV, and numerous ABS affiliates requested that the set be repaired before the DoA. Due to logistical issues, the previous Shokupanman incident at the ABS Broadcasting Center, a last-minute announcement that the set would be completely revamped and rebuilt, and ABS mainly concentrating its efforts on the production of the new PaRappa The Rapper series, the DoA had to be postponed until the 29th of May, 2015. ABS originally hoped that the DoA would go ahead without any further disruption, but it was soon held back even further, when the scheduled date was delayed to the 10th of June, 2015. The "final" date was scheduled as the 20th of June, 2015, with ABS stating that the event will be canceled if the event cannot be held on that day. At 3:40 am on the 17th of June, the Hyogo Broadcasting System announced that the 2015 DoA and all further DoA events, as well as all future airings of the anime series on ABS, had allegedly been canceled. The news was confirmed by Kabushiki Gaisha ABS at 4:25 am, and at the same time, people watching the show on-demand were met with black screens, 404 errors, and the sudden disappearance of every single episode from their library of viewable programs. A nationwide statement (by Kenji Yukimura, Kabushiki Gaisha ABS founder) regarding the cancellation was broadcast at 4:30 am across the entire ABS Television Network, in the middle of advertising breaks that were airing in between regular programming that was scheduled at the time. ABS soon cited the following reasons for the cancellation: * The DoA's "final" date would conflict with, and shut out, PaRappa The Rapper's premiere date (which conflicted with the DoA's "final" date of 20/6/15), * That ABS "could not sustain such an unpopular franchise-themed special event as the Day of Anpanman", and * ABS viewers turning away from the series, and tuning into rival channels for the duration of the day. ABS had then announced that it had scrapped the event entirely, and cut all links with the Anpanman franchise, ending ABS' relationship with the franchise and forcing all Anpanman content out of the ABS Television Network's schedule for good after twenty-six years. The Kansai area's ABS affiliate repossessed a dedication plaque displayed at the Kobe Anpanman Museum, and publicly burned it in front of the ABS Television Center the following day. The return A short Anpanman video clip mysteriously appeared on the ABS website just 3 months after the network claimed to have "totally scrapped" and "shut out" the franchise; the anpanman.abs.jp website was also brought back live. Some people claimed that this was signaling Anpanman's return to the ABS Television Network, and the potential return of the DoA. When asked for comment, Kenji Yukimura (head of Kabushiki Gaisha ABS) claimed that "he ''Anpanman is coming back, but don't expect us to go all-out and make him our network mascot, and we are most definitely NOT canceling that new show that effectively took his place". Kenji made no mention of the DoA in his ''Anpanman statement, but 12 days afterward, it was confirmed that the DoA would be held in 2015. However, due to the late nature of this announcement, ABS has disclaimed that the DoA may not be held until late November at the earliest. ABS has now launched an "urgent setup plan" that aimed for the speedy revival of the DoA, and STB, HBS, Nippon TV, TMS Entertainment and many other Anpanman merchandise licensees have been contracted to head the operation. Another statement released by ABS read: "We have officially reversed our decision to cancel the Day of Anpanman event, and our 2015 edition of said event will indeed be held, albeit much later than scheduled, on the 20th of November 2015. Many overhauls to the format are expected in order to introduce brand new features and events, as well as stopping the total Anpanman lockout that leads to us canceling the event. This is not going to be the date forever: The 2016 DoA, and all events held afterward will be scheduled annually for the 19th of May. However, new 'regional DoAs' will be held on a prefecture-by-prefecture basis on assorted dates that are yet to be announced." Upon announcement of the "urgent setup plans", The Spyder Valley Translator District board members placed a call to Kenji Yukimura in regards to the return of the DoA. The board in a statement related to the fact there was interest in seeing at least one viewing of the DoA. "We believe the people of The Spyder Valley should experience the Day of Anpanman one time in order to get a true sense of how the show Go! Anpanman made its impact on Japan. and to those who saw the DoA over the affiliates who carry the Aso Broadcasting System's programming. And in the interest of having this come to life, the board of directors for the district placed a call to Mr. Kenji Yukimura, and asked him if there was anything we could do on our end to assist in the return of the DoA." ABS' American annex announced on that day that it would support the Dahrconian DoA movement, and would hold events on the day within the Valley. In addition, as part of Kabushiki Gaisha ABS' foreign broadcast partnership program, a dedicated run for Let's Go! Anpanman in the Spyder Valley on DNRCT-TV channel 30 was announced, with the series starting on November 20th, 2015 (coinciding with the date of the 2015 DoA). The show will be run by DNRCT alongside ABS International's broadcasts on a 1-hour time shift. This is not the only country/company running its own DoA events outside of Japan: ABS announced that it has currently appointed the following companies as the DoA's "International Hosts", who would hold a small number of their own Anpanman events on the day; see below. Kabushiki Gaisha ABS will still be concentrating its own DoA efforts on Japan but will work with its international partners to make sure that the 2015 DoA attracts more global attention than their previous efforts. This ties in with Froebel-Kan's/TMS'/Nippon TV's plans to expand the franchise's outreach further outside of Japan (the first stage of which happened by opening its first ever official merchandise store in Taiwan). Advertising campaigns that are being "executed on such a scale, that the amount of effort and work going into them is totally immeasurable", according to ABS insider Yamajima Kunimoto, were underway across the world in order to attract attention to the new DoA. Participating networks and Sponsors for the revived DoA Effect on ABS and its affiliates The DoA's sudden revival announcement caused many new, existing and previously abandoned ABS corporate plans to be started, placed under accelerated development and/or restarted: * ABS' plans to launch a dedicated TV channel in China (C-Wave, a project that has been in the works since 2005) and seventh TV channel in Taiwan to complement the main Japanese ABS International service was resurrected as soon as the DoA revival was announced. The channel launched on the 11th of October as ZWTV and has now been appointed the side role of an International DoA Host in the China/HK/Macau area. ZWTV was originally planned to handle Taiwan as well, but its Taiwanese launch was canceled in order to make way for a dedicated Taiwanese ABS channel launching on the 15th of November as TUTV in Taiwan. * After the 2015 DoA announcement, people in Hiroshima noticed a large-scale construction project that appeared to be an extension of the Chugoku Television Center that housed ABS' Chugoku region annex, CTS. Some believe that this large glass façade would play host to stage shows and other Anpanman activities on the Day, and would function as a "welcome center" (similar to that of ABS' own headquarter building) for visitors afterward. Regional DoAs A new concept for "regional DoAs" (RDoAs) was proposed on the 18th of October, 2015. These events would be confined to specific Japanese prefectures, with one regional DoA annually for a specific prefecture. The regional DoAs would be scheduled as follows so that they would be held in the days leading up to the main global event: * 47 Japanese prefectures * 47 regional DoAs, one day for each prefecture * Events to be held in each prefecture working down the archipelago from top to bottom and left to right * The one-day gap between last RDoA of the year and nationwide DoA to avoid conflicts between dates * First regional DoA to be held in Hokkaido around 47 days before the main nationwide event, next one to be held in Aomori the following day, next RDoA after that to be held in Akita, next RDoA after that to be held in Iwate, and vice versa. The first ever Regional DoA took place in Hokkaido on the 2nd of April, 2016. Re-cancellation After no announcements regarding another DoA for 2017 (preparations for a new DoA are often announced around 3 months after that year's event finishes), it was feared that the DoA was set to be axed for good. Some persons were quick to mock this new "re-cancellation", comparing it to ABS' recent PaRappa The Rapper disaster. On the 15th of October 2016, Kenji Yukimura announced that the DoA had once again been canceled, however, this time has no intention of bringing the concept back. A themed day of similar nature dedicated to the much more globally-recognized and popular Doraemon series, and/or a takeover of a day's ABS continuity by Chuck E. Cheese, is now rumored as possible replacements. Anpanman's show itself retains its 4:20 pm JST Friday afternoon spot on ABS, Kenji noting that there was "no intention to kill off Anpanman for good". He did state that it was "no longer as important a show as it once was for ABS, yet we still wish to dedicate his regular TV spot to him as recognition of him as an icon of children's culture in Japan. And so, this is what we shall do".Category:Aso Broadcasting System Category:Special events Category:Events Category:Day of Anpanman